Franklin County school experiences tornado damage from weekend storm

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VINA, Ala. - Crews are getting ready to clean-up weekend storm damage in Franklin County. The National Weather Service surveyed the damage on Monday, determining the storm which moved through to be a brief EF-0.

Metal is strewn all over the campus of Vina School. Walkway awnings were shredded to pieces when high winds pushed through the small Franklin County town Saturday night.

But as daylight returned, school officials noticed much more damage than first thought.

“We’ve got several things we’ve got to look at,” stated Vina Principal James Pharr. “I just hope we don’t have several buildings that are leaking after this. That’s the biggest fear we have right now.”

The science and music building took the brunt of the storm. Winds pulled away a portion of the roof on the south-west corner.

Pharr said the roof on a ball field dugout was also sucked right off the walls.

Around campus, several of the light poles appear to be leaning. Crews spent most of Sunday getting ready for classes to resume Monday morning.

“Everybody jumped around and got everything lined up, and our maintenance crews got around and made sure we had heat in all of our buildings,” Pharr said. “So everything is going like it always has.”

Pharr said it’s up to the building inspectors and adjusters to determine just how significant the damage is.